The message of "Fuel" is clear: oil is bad, alternative energy is good. Its goals are simple: put Big Oil out of business, and sell the American public on the virtues of cleaner energy sources, such as wind, solar, and ethanol. Josh Tickell, an alternative-energy zealot, has both driven cross-country in a car powered only by fast-food cooking oil and written a book about it. His film is a combination of autobiography, first-person travelogue, history and ecology lesson, and a shamelessly inspirational call to action. Using charts, animated graphics and historical footage, Tickell ties our national obsession with oil to melting glaciers, melting economies, the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and the collapse of the American way of life. Eleven years in the making (a shorter version appeared in 2008 as "Fields of Fuel") the film is not so much a green documentary as a red, white, and blue alarm.